Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
University of Exeter historian Overy (The Morbid Age) delivers a dazzling if overstuffed reassessment of WWII. Characterizing the conflict as a clash between ambitious and resentful upstarts (Germany, Italy, Japan) that sought to expropriate territory from more venerable empires (Britain, France, Russia, China), Overy details the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Italian campaigns in Libya and Ethiopia, and the swift fall of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and France, before crediting Allied victories at Guadalcanal, El Alamein, and Stalingrad in 1942 with turning the tide of the war. He praises the Normandy landings and subsequent sweep across France and into Germany as "the high point of Anglo-American achievement during the war," and dramatically details the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Soviet Army's sweep into Manchuria. Overy then turns his attention to larger themes, including the economics of warfare, the impact of new technologies, and the efficacy of European resistance movements. Some of these discussions--about the conduct of civil defense, for example--grow tedious, and a chapter documenting "crimes and atrocities" committed by both sides of the conflict is more numbing than enlightening. Still, Overy's reframing of WWII as the last gasp of imperialism is astute and incisive. WWII buffs should consider this a must-read. (Apr.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
A leading British military historian, Wolfson Prize winner Overy ( The Dictators) offers a revisionist history of World War II, arguing that it was the final imperial war following a long buildup of global imperial expansion. That buildup hit its last gasp with the territorial ambitions of Germany, Italy, and Japan, then plunged into the world's bloodiest war, which might have ended territorial conquest by empires but had long-ranging consequences after 1945.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
More than 1,000 pages on World War II might seem overkill, but not for one of the world's leading military historians. Overy disagrees with "the conventional view of the war," which portrays "Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese military as causes of crisis rather than its effects, which is what they were." He emphasizes that historians describe World War I as the outcome of a 19th-century global imperial order dominated by the British and French and opposed by Germany, which considered itself a "have-not" nation whose survival depended on "conquering additional imperial zones of its own." Few readers will quarrel with that assessment, but they may be surprised with the author's startling yet persuasive argument that the same description applies to WWII. The 1920s featured three unhappy nations--Germany, Japan, and Italy--who felt that their national identities were in danger unless they could expand their influences. First off the mark was Japan, which invaded China in 1931. Meanwhile, viewing the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa as steppingstones to a new Roman Empire, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia. Overy emphasizes that Hitler had no intention of conquering the world. His view was that Germany, "as a vigorous, progressive and cultured people, lacked sufficient territory to…nourish a growing population." Annexing Austria, the Sudetenland, and Czechoslovakia were acts of an energetic imperial nation, and it was no secret that Poland was next. Still, Hitler expressed surprise when Britain and France declared war. A master of technical detail, Overy summarizes the campaigns but concentrates on the backgrounds and decisions of the leaders who, despite rhetoric about freedom, found themselves in a high-tech imperialistic war. Victory occurs halfway through, and the author devotes the remaining chapters to other relevant imperial issues: Britain's, France's, and Holland's violent efforts to preserve their empires did not peter out until the 1960s; China suffered civil war; and Stalin brutally took control of Eastern Europe. A brilliant, mildly controversial interpretation of the history, conduct, and aftermath of WWII. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
